Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 31-35 of 41
 Love-Hate Relationship with the E-P1 October 14, 2009
NolaKate (New Orleans, USA)
18 out of 20 found this review helpful
I was so excited about this camera that I bought it as soon as I could. I've had the camera now for a couple of months, and after quite a bit of exploring with it, I have finally come to some conclusions about it.
I should say that I am a long-time film shooter. My favorite camera I've ever owned was a Contax G2 rangefinder, which I foolishly sold a few years ago to fund my growing, and inevitably disappointing, digital camera collection. I had hoped the E-P1 would be, finally, a digital equivalent of my old Contax G2, a camera that was lightweight, beautifully built, and took the most reliably gorgeous photographs I've ever seen, regardless of light. Sadly, it's not.
The Olympus E-P1 is frustrating to use for a couple of reasons: the LCD is rather awful and the focus is difficult. I know most of the complaints about the E-P1's focus have been about the auto focus speed. Honestly that's not important to me. More important is the accuracy of the focus and ease of manual focus. On both counts the E-P1 is disappointing.
Because the LCD is not very high resolution, manual focus in low light is difficult. I am an available light photographer. I never use a flash. For this reason, though, I've always relied on either a viewfinder in the film days, or accurate auto focus in a digital camera. The E-P1's auto focus is completely great in good light. It will find focus quickly enough for me and the images are sharp. But when the light is dimmer, particularly inside, even during the day, the camera shows its limitations. I appreciate that there is a menu option to have auto focus plus manual focus, but unfortunately the LCD zoom that accompanies the manual focus is just too fuzzy to help at all. It's quite frustrating.
Equally frustrating has been the LCD outdoors when I'm shooting manual exposure. The LCD tends to show the image as being overexposed. When I take the shot and look at it afterward it is okay, which means the meter is accurate: a good thing. The bad thing is that sometimes I want to purposely underexpose or overexpose, and this becomes more difficult to see what the results will be because the LCD isn't giving me an accurate preview while I'm metering. Of course, there is no 'preview' at all when you shoot film -- you have to go just by what you know of your camera. But I don't understand digital nearly as well (though I'm trying to learn), so I need the preview to know what I'm going to get. In digital cameras, the white balance and color are so completely different than in film (and seem rather unpredictable to me -- the light changes and everything changes!) and, frankly, I don't want to do a lot of post-processing, so I'd like to be able to see what I'm going to get and make adjustments as I need to.
I have just recently tried shooting video, and as many others have pointed out, the kit zoom lens has trouble finding focus and is really, really loud about it. I haven't tried this camera with a fixed focal length lens, so perhaps the problem could be solved that way. I have noticed, though, that just as it is with still images, the lens has trouble focusing in lower light (afternoon, indoors, for instance) even when using manual focus and this is just a shame.
But it's not all bad. I have been pleasantly surprised by some of the night photographs I've taken with E-P1, even though I'm shooting with the kit lens. The in-camera image stabilization is a double, triple plus. I have shot hand held in the dark, with ISO no higher than 400, and produced sharp, interesting pictures. The camera seems to be better able to find focus in the dark than in dim indoor light; perhaps because it uses a contrast detection system.
As well as the meter being very accurate, the automatic white balance is pretty good in most situations. When the subject has less color or contrast, the white balance gets quite tricky. Fortunately, you can customize the white balance quite a bit. (Unfortunately, you're having to do it with that same inadequate LCD.)
Are all of my frustrations the result of the lousy kit zoom? It's possible. I've never had any love for the kit zooms I've owned, either in my film days (I shot Nikon as well as Contax, and the Nikon came with a lousy lens) or now in digital (I owned a Nikon D80 and the kit zoom was so awful I put it back in the box after a couple days of shooting). From what I've read, the E-P1 can accept nearly any lens and therefore could really shine with a better lens.
There are so many things I love about digital photography: the fact that you can see what you shot immediately and share them or print them immediately too, and the fact that many digital cameras can also shoot video (wow!). But it is also frustrating. I suspect that some of my frustrations with the E-P1 would disappear if I had a better lens -- perhaps the new Panasonic 20mm pancake. But I'm hesitant to buy another lens, let alone an adapter plus a lens, because I'm not sure I want to keep this camera because of the LCD. A couple of years ago I bought a Nikon D80 and sold it within a year because it was too heavy and bulky, so I rarely brought it with me. This, of course, is not the problem with the E-P1. It is easy to bring with me. Instead, it is the frustration that I find when using the E-P1 that gives me pause. Perhaps if I spend more time learning about the camera, and get a better lens, I will learn to love it. Right now, though, I'm considering giving it to my husband to use in the field (he's an archaeologist), where he will only shoot in daylight. There the camera will perform beautifully.
Big leap forward that needs another iteration; prepare for serious photography July 11, 2009
Biz Person (USA)
49 out of 76 found this review helpful
I've been using point and shoot cameras, favoring a Canon superzoom for the past two years. I bought the PEN looking to upgrade to something that would give crisper, better focused images and still be highly portable for travel. I read all the reviews in detail and thought the design looked cool.
So far I've had it for a few days and taken about 50 shots. There are a few MAJOR issues to consider before you buy this camera:
- OK it's smaller than a SLR but that's still heavier than a point & shoot. In fact it is so dense, I really have to use two hands all the time and I keep worrying I'll drop it. If this thing falls off the bed, it's going to either smash into pieces or break my toe.
- the lens cap has to be taken on and off EVERY time you start up. How long til I lose that? There's no spare or way to protect the lens without a cap. With my superzoom, I tethered the sole cap to my straps, but that does not work so well on a camera with interchangeable lenses.
- there's no viewfinder and no flash. You can buy them each separately but that gives you more widgets to carry around. It is MUCH less convenient than a superzoom.
- you really need to understand photography (aperture ratio, shutter speed, etc.) to use this camera. The auto-focus does not work in low light. You can't rely on Auto; it seems like I can often get better images by twiddling with settings.
- the free software that comes with it for adjusting RAW is aimed at power users
- the loops where the straps attach are stylish but annoying since they have these metal clips that do not rotate at all; the straps keep getting tangled and the metal loops stick out and catch on things.
- there is no custom bag for this camera, but it has a novel form factor since you want to carry two lenses along with a smallish body
Now for the good news: the crispness of image is superb! If I can manage to bring this along without breaking it, and if I can manage to learn photography while I am on vacation, then by the end of vacation I may have some gem photos.
In short, while this camera looks like a point and shoot with an SLR-style sensor, in fact it is really more of an SLR camera crammed into a tight package. It's best suited for camera buffs who will deeply appreciate its size and high-quality images.
In the next iteration, Olympus should add a better place for your thumb to hold when using it one-handed, fix the straps, add a tiny flash, and upgrade the ease of use of the Autofocus.
I am looking forward to learning more about photography and hopefully getting some amazing shots with this camera. Just bear in mind the Olympus PEN is going to demand special handling and a major learning curve, if you are used to a point-and-shoot digital camera.
Warning: slow AF speed is a dealbreaker September 10, 2009
BR
6 out of 10 found this review helpful
The E-P1 autofocus is absolutely horrible. Even my Canon point and shoot AF is much faster and more accurate. Half the photos of my kids are out of focus due to the slow focus speed or focusing on the wrong subject. I am looking forward to the new Panasonic GF1 (Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 12.1MP Micro Four-Thirds Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with 14-45mm Lens) as a replacement for my E-P1.
Great camera, lowsy software - Mac user October 17, 2009
Acuratic (DeLand, FL)
7 out of 12 found this review helpful
I've moved from a Nikon SLR to the Olympus EP-1. I was looking for a smaller camera that took SLR quality pictures and this fits the bill. Build quality feels superior to Canon/Nikon although time will tell. After a recent trip up the coast and through the woods of Maine I'm very pleased with the results. Getting used to having no viewfinder takes more than a week or two.
I use a Mac and store and edit programs with Aperture. Aperture, even after three months has no support for the RAW (ORF) files produced by the camera. The JPEG's import just fine.
The software that comes with the camera is horrendous. It is very amateurish in that there is no File menu and no Quit command. It can't import pictures stored on the hard drive. And forget about editing with it. This same software is used for updating the camera, lens and flash firmware which can render the camera unusable if a problem occurs. I love the camera but wish RAW support was available in Aperture. If you don't use RAW then you can easily set the camera to JPEG only. I've had a running email conversation with Olympus Tech Support and I'm not sure they really understand how bad their software really is. I've certainly tried to tell them in a positive way offering my assistance in beta testing any new updates.
I've read other reviews here that the camera can't be used with a Mac. This is untrue. Photos can be imported into iPhoto and Aperture as easily as any other camera. Simply slip the SD card into a MacBook Pro with an SD card reader slot or use an SD card reader. Do NOT use the Olympus software or connect camera via cable (which I never do anyway). I've also imported the movies produced by the camera with no problems. Excellent movie quality.
I recommend downloading the manual from the Olympus website (the printed one included in the box has tiny print). Spending an hour or so learning the features is worth the effort. Navigating through the menu and selections is easy.
I purchased a second battery although I never needed to use it shooting photos and movies all day.
An issue is the lack of available lenses. There are no telephoto lenses available from Olympus besides the 14-42mm. The 17mm 'pancake' lens looks like a good option for low light situations if it were't for the $299 price tag (a bit steep for a camera at this price level).
Overall, I love the small-size convenience and photo quality. The camera with the 14-42mm lens is good value. If you can do without RAW format, which most probably can, then I doubt you can find a better camera.
Good design, sub-average execution.. July 18, 2009
P. Baek (Chicago, Illinois United States)
30 out of 50 found this review helpful
I bought the EP-1 and the kit lens 14-42mm. As expected, the autofocus is slow and can't compete with true DSLR's like the Nikon D5000 or even Olympus' own E620. Normal JPEG output looks good but focus is a little too soft and dynamic range is not as good as I would like. Also, start-up time is frustratingly slow....you have to turn the power on, take the lens cap off, and twist the unlock button on the lens barrel before you can even see the image on the LCD screen.....when you have to take a quick shot, forget it! I know that most people are buying this camera for it's retro, hip style and portability, but in reality, the camera is bigger than just about any compact camera out there (including the Canon G10 and Panasonic LX3) and you cannot fit the EP-1 in a pants pocket (esp. with the zoom lens).....once you buy the flash and a few lenses, you'll need a good size camera bag and then you'll end up carrying about the same amount of gear as a typical DSLR. For me, I ended up returning the EP-1 and getting the Fuji Finepix F200 EXR. To me, the F200 took pictures just as nice as the EP-1, esp. at high ISO, is much smaller (fits into a pants pocket), has a built-in flash, and much cheaper. Granted the EP-1 has much more manual controls and features than the F200 and the ability to use different lenses, but in the end, image quality (which is the most important part) is what counts and I found the F200 could hold it's own against the EP-1....not to mention the fact that the Fuji is much smaller, lighter, and thus, more portable than the EP-1 and has a much quicker start-up time.
Showing reviews 31-35 of 41
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